A Black Woman's Odyssey / Edition 1

by Nancy Prince, Ronald G Walters

Overview

Memories of Africa, pre-civil war New England, political turmoil in Russia, the end of slavery in Jamaica, and Caribbean pirates; an intrepid black woman experiences many turning points in world history. Nancy Prince paints a blunt picture of the struggle of free blacks to make a living in the North. When Boston failed to provide her with a livable wage, she and her husband found employment on a boat bound for Russia. A black household servant was a rare commodity in the land of the czars, and Prince was well compensated in St. Petersburg.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781558760196
Publisher:	Wiener, Markus Publishers, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/10/2009
Series:	Topics in World History
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	124
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.29(d)

Editorial Reviews

Prince was among some 6500 free blacks who lived in Massachusetts in the decades before the Civil War. A genteel, literate woman working for religious, abolitionist and feminist causes, she nevertheless felt the weight of prejudice in her native land (she describes plainly but forcefully the adversity that faced her)--and its absence in Czarist Russia, where she spent nearly a decade with her husband. Having arrived in Russia as a sailor, Nero Prince became one of a small group of blacks who served in the Imperial court. Although the writing is stilted overall, the author vividly describes local Russian customs, as well as her experiences of the St. Petersburg flood of 1824 and the Decembrist Revolt. She returned to America, and, becoming widowed, went to Jamaica as missionary to the newly emancipated blacks there. But, disillusioned by the exploitation of the Jamaicans by her fellow missionaries and others, she set sail for home. Her voyage was marked by a near shipwreck and an attempt by the ship's treacherous captain to sell her into slavery. This adventurous woman offers a singular perspective on the African experience in America. Illustrated. (Aug . )

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly